Does it really need to be said that an autonomous vehicle still needs to manage to not kill people regardless of their position relative to any nearby crosswalks?
Today you can cross in the middle of the street and take a calculated risk that the people approaching down the street will stop or slow down enough to not kill you. If they go ahead and kill you anyway, they'll still be prosecuted because their attention should be on the road, and the most basic assumption behind their driver's license is that this person is competent enough and fit enough to drive what amounts to a deadly weapon without killing the people around them. When you violate that assumption, the fault is probably on you. Obviously there are exceptions, such as when somebody intentionally jumps in front of your vehicle, but crossing outside of the crosswalk to get across the street is not even close to the same level as trying to commit suicide and fault will be found accordingly.
> Does it really need to be said that an autonomous vehicle still needs to manage to not kill people regardless of their position relative to any nearby crosswalks?
If you require 100% impossibility of killing anybody regardless of what the vehicle and the person is doing - it is achievable only by making those vehicles nearly useless - such as lowering their max speed to something 10 mph (maybe even lower since it's still possible to push a person who will slip, hit their head on the pavement and die). If the vehicle is moving fast and somebody jumps onto a street, there are physical limitation of what can be done. So, if this technology is to exist there will always be a space where accidents can - and eventually will - happen.
If that's something the software can't handle well then it's going to be a huge problem in many parts of the world. In many places in Europe, Africa and Asia for instance pedestrians will cross anywhere and everywhere at any time.
